Monthly Archives: June 2010

I took this up to see if I could do it in under an hour: translating the song 「君のためなら死ねる」(“kimi no tame nara shineru”) which was the theme song to Sonic Team’s game of the same title (English title:Feel the Magic XY/XX). You can hear it here.

Before I start, I should talk about the title. It seems that before the game got an English title, most people were translating the Japanese title as “I Would Die For You.” Personally, as a translator, if word order does NOT cause the translation to become unnatural, I prefer to stick to the original word order, so I prefer the translation “For You I Could Die.” Also, this way no one gets it confused with Prince’s famous song. ^o^

Unfortunately, I can’t find the original Japanese lyrics on anything other than regular people’s blogs. Since the lyrics I’ve found across these blogs aren’t consistent as far what they wrote in kanji, hiragana, or katakana, I’ve made a few changes, almost always opting to write things that have common kanji writings in kanji (for example, I wrote お待たせ even though some blogs had it as おまたせ).

Alright, so here we go! First the Japanese, then romaji, and finally the translation.

We’ve kept you waiting Welcome, everyone
From now the “miracles” will begin
Puking up goldfish Putting out candles
Blowing on bats Smearing paint [1]
Racing about on the store’s cart
Dive from the stratosphere to the ground
We don’t get injured at all [2]

That’s right Remember it, everyone
Our name is “Rub Rabbits” [3]
Showering in formic acid Dodging missiles
Riding shakily on the waves Falling from buildings
Somersaults on the freeway
A hurried escape from the belly of a great serpent
We don’t even get a scratch on us

Hey everyone, there’s more!
“Miracles” are unpredictable
Poking at scorpions Burning bonfires
Feverish from dancing Everyone, get feverish
Screaming out from other people’s mikes
Even if one hundred stampeding cows come,
We will sing elegantly [4]

Unidentifiable, like a briefly manifesting demon god [5]
Our name is “Rub Rabbits”
The hope to live on, the courage to dream,
The leeway to smile, the heart to love,
We will take these to everyone in this world
Hold dear life dear
We don’t take it lightly

Half naked, screaming, to the sea, GO!
Naked, ashamed, to the sky, GO!
With doubts, race upon the ground!
With all your body and soul, go to Mach five! [6]

When everyone’s surprised faces turn into smiles,
Our faces will also turn into smiles that can shine.

___________________________________________________

~Translator’s Notes~

[1] “Puking up goldfish” and “blowing on bats” (as well as, presumably, every other weird reckless act mentioned in this song) are things you do in the game. At first I thought I had interpreted an idiom literally, but no, these words are meant literally. You can see a screencap from the game on the Wiki article linked above of the guy with goldfish in his stomach. ^_^;

[2] The word used for we is “oretachi,” which is a very rough, masculine way of saying it.

[3] Katakana ラブ (rabu) can stand for either “rub” or “love.” While the English localization writes it as “Rub Rabbits” (since rubbing the DS screen is one of the gameplay elements), since it is a game about a guy trying to impress a girl and these “Rabbits” help him, we can take “rabu” as standing for “love” as well in this game. In between verses, are the singers yelling out “Love it,” “rub it,” or “rabbits”? All three, I think. ^o^

[4] The kanji used for “utau” across all the blogs I saw is 唱, which, apparently, in modern Japanese isn’t pronounced that way. I couldn’t even find 唱う in ALC’s Eijirou, so even though typing うたう I can get it to convert to 唱う, I can’t find it as “to sing” in any dictionary. 唱 means “chant, yell, recite” and is commonly used in 唱える (tonaeru) which means to recite/chant i.e. prayers, or to advance i.e. a theory. What I take it as is that they will continue to sing in that chant-like style of theirs.

[5] 神出鬼没, “shinshutsukibotsu” can be translated more simply as “elusive,” but then it loses the imagery of the original words severely. The original comes from the image of a powerful god manifesting freely when and where they want to and disappearing once they’ve done what they wanted to do.

[6] Given how the previous lines end in the English verb “go,” here the “go” is both the English verb “go” and the number 5, which is pronounced “go” in Japanese. The sentence literally just says “With all your body and soul, Mach 5,” but I made it “go to Mach 5” so that both English and Japanese “go” are accounted for in the translation.